cheddar dill butter

Before you adjust your Encyclopedia Brown magnifying glass, you're correct in wondering where the heck the cheddar is in that butter above. If you guessed that it looks like chopped parsley in there instead of dill, then give yourself another star too.

That my friends, is actually garlic butter. It sounds so simple when I say it that way, and while the process is quite easy, the flavors are what every good garlic bread should behold in my humble opinion.

I just need to lay one ground rule.

I get a nervous tick at the thought of calling this a recipe.

Really it's just softened butter, mixed with minced garlic and parsley, a good amount of grated locatelli cheese—let's call it Parmesan for ease in finding it at your local grocery store, and some pepper (go easy if you add salt, since the cheese adds a good deal to it already).

Okay, so now that we've got that all squared away this is meant to be more of a suggestion. And you will want to keep this suggestion at the forefront of your mind from now on because compound butters add flavor fast.

Love shrimp? Saute them in a hot pan or grill them, unseasoned, then toss them in a covered bowl with a pat of this butter. You'll be in for a yummy surprise a few minutes later.

Grilled steak? Yep, a pat of that smeared on top is enough to make me reconsider my almost meat-free diet.

And bread.

Let's take a moment to think about this spread on a slice. Then run it under the broiler for a really special experience. You can thank me later.

Dear me, the garlic butter has derailed my initial intention to talk about that dill cheddar butter, but that is how my mind works these days. I  get lost in the tangents of life—that's not always a bad thing.

See if I hadn't made the garlic butter, then the dill cheddar one might not have come to be. Recently Pepperidge Farm asked me to give their new Stone Baked Artisan Rolls a test drive. Because I find those little disclaimers at the bottom of posts annoying, let me be clear up front and let you know they have paid me to share my thoughts about the rolls. The words and opinions are my own, and anyone who knows me understands thoughts an opinions always flow freely.

But back to the butter…and the rolls.

I'm actually excited to tell you the ingredients are ones I can understand. I chose the multi-grain dinner rolls, made with unbromated, unbleached wheat flour, water, honey, wheat gluten, malt syrup, rolled oats, wheat germ, wheat bran, bulgur wheat, flax seeds and yeast.

As an aside, I'd like to thank Pepperidge Farm for understanding bloggers aren't one size fits all. When I was initially approached, my first response was to ask for the ingredient list. They got back to me within a day. I get approached on a daily basis by companies, and being a from-scratch fanatic, most don't fit with my cooking style. I mean folks, I just made my own mustard and have been known to bake bread quite often too.

So, I added a stop at the supermarket to my Saturday afternoon errands, coupons in hand to get a couple of bags to test drive. Good lord people, I haven't stepped foot into a grocery store on a Saturday in years. It was like a war-zone. Being the weekend before Passover didn't help, and sorry to the person I clipped with my fast moving hips. I had a purpose and wasn't about to let the cute couple holding hands, casually strolling down the aisle slow me down.

I finally got home, rolls in hand. Linguine with clam sauce was on the menu for dinner, and I had some of that garlic butter in the fridge. But then I got sidetracked—what else is new!

There was this fragrant bunch of dill I'd picked up at the farmers' market to make matzoh ball soup, and so the wheels started turning. I shredded some cheddar cheese, plucked some dill and mixed it together with softened butter, pepper, a pinch of salt and some paprika.

And there you have it—cheddar dill butter that gets a crisp finish with a quick run under the broiler. My toes are wiggling at the thought of those gooey bits of cheese flecked throughout.

As for the rolls, much as I often weigh the time, cost and taste of making everything from scratch I must admit a bag of these in the freezer seems a very handy, and good, ingredient to keep around. The size is petite which is perfect for burgers. I find the ones I buy at the bakery are often too big and overwhelm the small patties I prefer making—you know three ounces is a proper portion size, not eight.

The rectangular shape of the roll means round patties won't work, but get crazy and make rectangular burgers. I know, I'm just a regular 'ol wild and crazy gal. What will I dream up next—salted molasses butter? Oh right, I've got that covered too.

And if you're just looking to spruce up dinner, well a little bit of this cheddar dill butter does the trick too.

{The nitty gritty: in case you missed my disclaimer in paragraph three of this novel-length post, Pepperidge Farm is compensating me to help spread the word about their new Stone Baked Artisan Rolls.}